"": 200, "": "", "": "He shuddered, and his vision suddenly blurred.
The woman had vanished, but the door stood open. Human sobs mingled with the moaning wind.
Luo Bin walked outside.
He reached the Flower Garden and stood beneath the Cuckoo Tree.
He saw the woman.
Her face was taut. Numerous talismans lay on the ground in a strange formation, with a thumb-thick bundle of hair at its center.
She sat on a wooden stool, another small formation beneath her.
Several grooves connected this formation to the other one.
She was vomiting blood.
The blood soaked into the formation and flowed along the grooves into the other one.
The blood-soaked talismans gave off a faint red glow, but each kept curling up.
As the woman vomited blood, she flicked out fresh talismans, dropping them into their corresponding positions.
She kept murmuring a few words.
"Come back!"
"Come back!"
"Senior Brother!"
"Come back!"
Her grief deepened, yet she dared not raise her voice too much.
Suddenly, every talisman curled up.
The bundle of hair in the formation seemed to be growing.
Delight flashed in the woman's eyes.
But then horror and fear swept across her face.
"Liar!"
The word left her lips, ice-cold.
She slammed a hand against her chest and vomited another great mouthful of blood.
Dipping her fingers in blood, she drew a talisman on her chest.
Pain surfaced on her face.
Three figures appeared beside her.
They were clearly portions of her living soul.
They swiftly scattered.
Then another living soul appeared, swept up the bundle of black hair, and hurried away.
The wind grew stronger.
It scattered the curled talisman paper on the ground.
The blood seeped into the earth, little by little.
The woman was still crying, but she looked utterly drained.
Blood